Greetings from Hong kong dear Susu on my solo grand tour of Asia to celebrate my big 80. So happy to come back to my hotel room after a day of wanderlust to find the familiar and the extraordinary. thank you for sharing your beautiful Jon. Truly, you are both gifts from the gods Muchas Gracias. With gratitude.💖
Thank you, sweetheart. I want to send you one of my children’s books in the series “The Doggos” . I think you’ll love them. You can see them on Amazon but when I get back if you’d like, I would love to send you the book “Charlotte and boo-boo”. I can send it to you through Christina Merrill, whom I know well🥰
I am a newly diagnosed with rare blood cancer, and the diagnosis is sending me deep into myself to learn who I am in this new context of sickness. I am re-thinking my clothing, the way my home is arranged and eve decorated. I pulled out an old favorite, which is a beautiful drawing of Beethoven, celebrating art in radio. My own musical background includes classical and jazz, too. In the 80's as a college student, I simply could not play jazz on my violin - everything came out sounded wrong. So I learned a new instrument - the bass. I could do it on the bass. Now all these many years later, the violin is gonna come back out for more exploration. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for you.
I’ve got not one but two diseases that cause low platelets. The cancer is myelofibrosis and the non-malignant disease is ITP. Glad to meet you, fellow traveler!
I know a little about myelofibrosis. I had to look up ITP. Myeloma is a of plasma cells, when the body makes too many. There can also be DNA anomalies and kidney failure, as in my case. I am also immunocompromised and am just get over long Covid, which hit me hard.
I was left alone as a 12 year old child in this big old Georgian house 🏠 n Lynn, Mass. I was lonely a lot so I would put on these musical albums like Oklahoma, get a broom, and dance with my partner, the broom, throughout the carpeted rooms in this whole old house. There was a huge mirror you could see yourself in as you walk down down the stairs, along with a beautiful, stain glass window. I’d put on blues music, and watch myself walk down the stairs like a sultry blues singer. This all helped me with my fear of being alone, especially when I’d spy a smile on my face as I was dancing. I later began to understand how resourceful and creative I am. Many blessings came through my loneliness. Sending love and hugs rot this beautiful community.
So beautiful and thank you. This has been my life, searching beyond what is seen and what speaks between the notes, the words and the quiet. It is how I taught myself to love the Infinite and the unknown . Always looking through the cracks. At 72, I still check my stuffed animals in the morning to make sure they all returned to their proper places after a night of dancing while I slept. In my garden, every tree, bush and creature has a name. As my cancer continues, I look between the spaces, the unknown so fear will not own me. Thank you again Jon and Holly for this moment of love and joy.
Thank you all for your contributions here today. So much elegance. I have just returned from Ireland and my mother’s funeral. @Jon, when you spoke about there not being one song that transcends different facets of life, that resonated. I have spent the last week listening to a funeral song. Dolores Keane’s version of Caledonia. It will forever hold me close to my mum now. So I loved the transition to your music and your gospel and bluesy renditions. It has sparked joy for a trip ahead to New Orleans over the holidays. As for childhood memories, nothing specifically comes to this jet lagged mind but my inner child was nurtured in Ireland last week, traipsing around after the coolest looking mountain sheep in the highland. They are so cute!!
I’m sorry for your loss. Yesterday was the anniversary of my father’s death and last week was my mum’s death anniversary. Be kind to yourself in your grief.
Thank you. My dad passed five years ago at 90, my mum at 95.
It feels strange for all the US based siblings to no longer have that call to fly home. What I deeply appreciated about the last two weeks was the grace with which the Irish handle life transition. The love and caring and wonderful moments in the nursing home were just heartwarming.
So first, Suleika and Jon, thank you for being makers and artists! We are all blessed by your presence and your wild imaginings….
Jon, I love your phenomena of “spontaneous composition.” I’ve often said one of the greatest life tools is one’s openness to improvisation. I love too how you practice being in conversation with the composer as a living, be-ing presence of human and musician. Beethoven not being under glass in a museum but an artist and a human and a divine creator of not only his time but beyond that. That’s the beauty of imagination I feel. The ability and practice of vivid impressions of art by imaginative creation of improv no matter what your creative endeavor is a gift directly from one’s soul. Indeed. To me to listen to you interpret and practice improvisation of other artists is a tapestry of authenticity of you being you in collaboration or as you say, “conversation “, with the Divine. Imagination is an instrument of the greater universe to me beyond linear time and static being. Beethoven wrote “movements” not curated and perfected melodies. Anyway, I’m rambling. I’m in awe of your gifts and honored to share space in this moment with you and Suleika both. All good things for your morning. Hug the pups! Thank you, Holly, too and Carmen. Love ya.
Jon: I started taking piano lessons when I was 42 years old. I felt sorry for my teacher, but I progressed pretty rapidly...only thing, I couldn't get through one piece without making mistakes...even two years in. And I still remember her horror when she asked me to play Bach's Joy of My Desiring and I had improvised and "jazz'd" it up. This was light years away from when I had any right to try to do that...but it had been fun. Just playing it the way I felt inside. But she squashed that like a bug. I needed to learn the fundamentals first. I have your Fur Elise piece on my Apple Music on repeat and cannot WAIT for the entire album!
Holly...so fun to read about your life! You are braver than I. A game I played often as a kid...we had a square sandbox in the backyard and I would take pots and pans, camping canteens, my cowgirl outfit, my brother's toy rifle, etc., and sit in the sandbox and imagine I was in a wagon train traveling west across the country . The television show, "Wagon Train," was a big hit back then and something about it sparked my imagination so much that I wanted to "be" on that long, dangerous, cross-country trip myself. Soon, I would be spending hours in my bedroom listening to the latest music and trying on makeup but until then, I was driving oxen across my backyard.
Yes! And I still love westerns. There's just something about it. It fascinates me that in the "scheme" of things, the "old" west wasn't all that long ago!
Hello, Hello, Hello dear Jon and thanks for your wonderful intro! I wish for every one of us to be more like ourselves and also to be more bold and open whenever someone is trying to introduce something new while respecting the past aka "The more important point is that when we allow forms to evolve, we find new frequencies" - thousand times YES YES YES! I love your version (Jon's version) of "Für Elise" and can't wait for the whole album to come out.
Still listening to the World Music Radio on repeat. Love the concept, love the approach, 'cause "EVERY MUSIC IS A WORLD MUSIC"! Loved your opening show @ Montreux.
Say hi to Suleika (hope she's doing better and sending a lots of love & energy) and your lovely cuddly dogs.
Last but not least - welcome to your "dog in a bed" era ❤️ it suits you very well! Happy Sunday 🙌
Thank you for the reminder, that was great! (I listen to the album on repeat with water headphones while I’m swimming - always meant to call it but forgot by the time I get out of pool. Was curious because I knew 504 is Nola’s area code because my daughter lives there.)
They’re a game changer! I’ve seen others use them for a while, but hesitated to get them because I enjoy the meditative peacefulness of lap swimming. Glad I gave them a chance, I’m listening to more music now than I have in decades and I forgot how much I enjoyed listening to music! (Spend a lot of time listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and there’s just so much listening time available in a day!) Added benefit, I’ve increased my swimming time ;)
Your husband Jon’s writing this week is beautiful; his words about creativity and authenticity really resonated with me. My husband died three weeks ago from a previously undetected brain tumor and I have spent so much time listening to Jon’s music and being so meditative, thinking of my own dear husband’s authentic, beautiful and unique mind and voice. Thank you.
Thank you. The song Butterfly, especially, has been on repeat for me. My husband was such a beautiful person and also loved taking pictures of butterflies for me since he knew how much I loved their spectacular, fluttering beauty. Please let Jon know that I am waiting (not so) patiently for that new Beethoven Blues album to drop. My husband’s memorial is this coming Saturday and I will be playing Jon’s music throughout the day.
There’s a fresh video in which Jon listens to Holiday by Green Day, and composes spontaneously to it. As I was listening, I thought, “He’s our Duke Ellington.” I was thinking about Nutcracker Suite, specifically. Duke Ellington was my mother’s favorite composer and our house was always filled with his music. Jon, you have picked up his baton. He had genius and flair, and so do you, my brother.
Maybe it was because we moved so much or maybe my parents did not think toys were very important, but I always had a lot of books, and very few toys. My parents did not believe in watching television and when we finally got one I was not allowed to watch it much. For many years I did not have friends so I had to use my imagination to invent games. I used to draw a lot and make up stories about the people in my drawings. Usually, sisters, princesses and girls with long flowing hair. When I was too little to write I would dictate my stories to my mother who would dutifully write them on the bottom of the drawings.My mother had a weekly calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spent hours making up stories about the girls in the Renoir paintings. To this day those paintings make me smile. Another inspiration for my imagination was the Sears Roebuck catalogue. I spent hours and hours pouring over its pages inventing stories about the people in the catalogue and choosing outfits for myself. It was the 1970’s so everyone was wearing polyester suits. I do not think I would want to go near any of those clothes now.
When I think back on my childhood-play I marvel at how I was able to fill so much time with only my imagination to occupy me. I feel wistful, but also sad because I remember how lonely I felt at the time. Maybe the stories I invented were the precursor to me developing an interest in writing in recent years. It might have helped me to become a good friend when I finally acquired some friends and to grow into the empathetic clinician that I am today..
Imagine that! Almost daily I walk this rural neighborhood. The road through the trees leads me to a bridge over a creek. I usually pause on the bridge, gaze at the flowing waters, and look to see what the setting Sun is saying to me through the reflections within the waters. I am coming to realize that this walk is my pilgrimage to a Sacred place. My eyes suddenly see blue sky and a large yellow leaf on the road. I pick up the leaf, hold it up to the sky, an alter is formed, a prayer is enacted, and there is no separation, no us and them, no separate "I". All becomes Beauty. Herein lies the Divine. A message announcing Life's purpose. To behold, to be held, to embrace, and be embraced. Only Beauty.
“Freedom alone, to go further is the purpose in the art world, as in the whole great creation…” and “Nature knows no standstill; hand in hand with it, true art also walks…”. are Beethoven quotations I got from the Beethoven-house in Bonn I visited two weeks ago. It was much more touching for me than I had previously thought to experience his music in connection with things like handwritten letters and notes, his grand piano, but also his huge and therefore desperate collection of ear trumpets and the many portraits of him, always with the expression of suffering. With the combination of art and illness there was no chance not to think of this community here, too. He also wrote “…little was missing, and I ended my life myself - only she, the art, she held me back…”.
I love all of your words and inspirations and am looking very much forward to the new piano-Album! And love and wishes for a golden October Sunday of some kind to everyone here!
“It doesn’t have to be make believe; make it real.” Thank you, Jon. Your piece resonated deeply within me. I love that we can “play” the musical notes heard, yet, unwritten. It makes me believe that we can still continue to add the unwritten notes into the sound track of our daily lives.
Holly - your prompt demands I delve into my past memories before I can respond.
Suleika - thank you for gathering and sharing these wonderful creatives with us and, for us.
Community - thank you for sharing your vulnerabilities, heart aches and joys with us all living within the safe framework of this TIJ playground.
Greetings from Hong kong dear Susu on my solo grand tour of Asia to celebrate my big 80. So happy to come back to my hotel room after a day of wanderlust to find the familiar and the extraordinary. thank you for sharing your beautiful Jon. Truly, you are both gifts from the gods Muchas Gracias. With gratitude.💖
Wishing you a very happy birthday! I love that you're ringing in this next turn around the sun with an epic trip ❤️
Thank you, sweetheart. I want to send you one of my children’s books in the series “The Doggos” . I think you’ll love them. You can see them on Amazon but when I get back if you’d like, I would love to send you the book “Charlotte and boo-boo”. I can send it to you through Christina Merrill, whom I know well🥰
Congrats on turning 80 and solo traveling to Asia to celebrate💙🌿
Happy Birthday Suzi!! Yes, such an inspiration to hear of your journey and celebration!
I am a newly diagnosed with rare blood cancer, and the diagnosis is sending me deep into myself to learn who I am in this new context of sickness. I am re-thinking my clothing, the way my home is arranged and eve decorated. I pulled out an old favorite, which is a beautiful drawing of Beethoven, celebrating art in radio. My own musical background includes classical and jazz, too. In the 80's as a college student, I simply could not play jazz on my violin - everything came out sounded wrong. So I learned a new instrument - the bass. I could do it on the bass. Now all these many years later, the violin is gonna come back out for more exploration. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for you.
As a fellow bassist, I love that you're returning to music! Thinking of you and sending love as you process this diagnosis ❤️
I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis Robin. Sending love to you. ❤️
I am sorry to hear about your diagnosis and grateful we are together in this beautiful community
I am so sorry for the difficult path you are on. Sending you strength♥️
I hope you discover a new relationship with your violin after this difficult diagnosis, Robin. May your spirit sore through the strings!
So sorry you are dealing with blood cancer. Glad that you have music to explore. Love to you!
Robin, is it multiple myeloma? If so you've got a fellow traveler here. Nine years and counting.
I’ve got not one but two diseases that cause low platelets. The cancer is myelofibrosis and the non-malignant disease is ITP. Glad to meet you, fellow traveler!
I know a little about myelofibrosis. I had to look up ITP. Myeloma is a of plasma cells, when the body makes too many. There can also be DNA anomalies and kidney failure, as in my case. I am also immunocompromised and am just get over long Covid, which hit me hard.
I was left alone as a 12 year old child in this big old Georgian house 🏠 n Lynn, Mass. I was lonely a lot so I would put on these musical albums like Oklahoma, get a broom, and dance with my partner, the broom, throughout the carpeted rooms in this whole old house. There was a huge mirror you could see yourself in as you walk down down the stairs, along with a beautiful, stain glass window. I’d put on blues music, and watch myself walk down the stairs like a sultry blues singer. This all helped me with my fear of being alone, especially when I’d spy a smile on my face as I was dancing. I later began to understand how resourceful and creative I am. Many blessings came through my loneliness. Sending love and hugs rot this beautiful community.
I am imagining the visual here. Hope you are still out there dancing today
Yes I am!♥️💯
Thank you for the gifts this Sunday morning. My body Is a bag I’d hurting joints. I find no refuge.
The suddenly your beautiful husband breaks through the pain with a reminder of all that is
magical.
I'm so moved to know this space is a refuge. Sending you so much love, Marilee ❤️
So beautiful and thank you. This has been my life, searching beyond what is seen and what speaks between the notes, the words and the quiet. It is how I taught myself to love the Infinite and the unknown . Always looking through the cracks. At 72, I still check my stuffed animals in the morning to make sure they all returned to their proper places after a night of dancing while I slept. In my garden, every tree, bush and creature has a name. As my cancer continues, I look between the spaces, the unknown so fear will not own me. Thank you again Jon and Holly for this moment of love and joy.
Thank you all for your contributions here today. So much elegance. I have just returned from Ireland and my mother’s funeral. @Jon, when you spoke about there not being one song that transcends different facets of life, that resonated. I have spent the last week listening to a funeral song. Dolores Keane’s version of Caledonia. It will forever hold me close to my mum now. So I loved the transition to your music and your gospel and bluesy renditions. It has sparked joy for a trip ahead to New Orleans over the holidays. As for childhood memories, nothing specifically comes to this jet lagged mind but my inner child was nurtured in Ireland last week, traipsing around after the coolest looking mountain sheep in the highland. They are so cute!!
I’m sorry for your loss. Yesterday was the anniversary of my father’s death and last week was my mum’s death anniversary. Be kind to yourself in your grief.
Thank you. My dad passed five years ago at 90, my mum at 95.
It feels strange for all the US based siblings to no longer have that call to fly home. What I deeply appreciated about the last two weeks was the grace with which the Irish handle life transition. The love and caring and wonderful moments in the nursing home were just heartwarming.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
So first, Suleika and Jon, thank you for being makers and artists! We are all blessed by your presence and your wild imaginings….
Jon, I love your phenomena of “spontaneous composition.” I’ve often said one of the greatest life tools is one’s openness to improvisation. I love too how you practice being in conversation with the composer as a living, be-ing presence of human and musician. Beethoven not being under glass in a museum but an artist and a human and a divine creator of not only his time but beyond that. That’s the beauty of imagination I feel. The ability and practice of vivid impressions of art by imaginative creation of improv no matter what your creative endeavor is a gift directly from one’s soul. Indeed. To me to listen to you interpret and practice improvisation of other artists is a tapestry of authenticity of you being you in collaboration or as you say, “conversation “, with the Divine. Imagination is an instrument of the greater universe to me beyond linear time and static being. Beethoven wrote “movements” not curated and perfected melodies. Anyway, I’m rambling. I’m in awe of your gifts and honored to share space in this moment with you and Suleika both. All good things for your morning. Hug the pups! Thank you, Holly, too and Carmen. Love ya.
Jon: I started taking piano lessons when I was 42 years old. I felt sorry for my teacher, but I progressed pretty rapidly...only thing, I couldn't get through one piece without making mistakes...even two years in. And I still remember her horror when she asked me to play Bach's Joy of My Desiring and I had improvised and "jazz'd" it up. This was light years away from when I had any right to try to do that...but it had been fun. Just playing it the way I felt inside. But she squashed that like a bug. I needed to learn the fundamentals first. I have your Fur Elise piece on my Apple Music on repeat and cannot WAIT for the entire album!
Holly...so fun to read about your life! You are braver than I. A game I played often as a kid...we had a square sandbox in the backyard and I would take pots and pans, camping canteens, my cowgirl outfit, my brother's toy rifle, etc., and sit in the sandbox and imagine I was in a wagon train traveling west across the country . The television show, "Wagon Train," was a big hit back then and something about it sparked my imagination so much that I wanted to "be" on that long, dangerous, cross-country trip myself. Soon, I would be spending hours in my bedroom listening to the latest music and trying on makeup but until then, I was driving oxen across my backyard.
I love this! I think my childhood frontier make-believe is my favorite of all (prompted by Laura Ingalls Wilder, of course!)
Yes! And I still love westerns. There's just something about it. It fascinates me that in the "scheme" of things, the "old" west wasn't all that long ago!
Hello, Hello, Hello dear Jon and thanks for your wonderful intro! I wish for every one of us to be more like ourselves and also to be more bold and open whenever someone is trying to introduce something new while respecting the past aka "The more important point is that when we allow forms to evolve, we find new frequencies" - thousand times YES YES YES! I love your version (Jon's version) of "Für Elise" and can't wait for the whole album to come out.
Still listening to the World Music Radio on repeat. Love the concept, love the approach, 'cause "EVERY MUSIC IS A WORLD MUSIC"! Loved your opening show @ Montreux.
Say hi to Suleika (hope she's doing better and sending a lots of love & energy) and your lovely cuddly dogs.
Last but not least - welcome to your "dog in a bed" era ❤️ it suits you very well! Happy Sunday 🙌
Eva have you ever called the number on World Music Radio? Such a cool touch. That album is genius!
Thank you for the reminder, that was great! (I listen to the album on repeat with water headphones while I’m swimming - always meant to call it but forgot by the time I get out of pool. Was curious because I knew 504 is Nola’s area code because my daughter lives there.)
Wow water headphones ! Never thought of that…must add to my wishlist !
They’re a game changer! I’ve seen others use them for a while, but hesitated to get them because I enjoy the meditative peacefulness of lap swimming. Glad I gave them a chance, I’m listening to more music now than I have in decades and I forgot how much I enjoyed listening to music! (Spend a lot of time listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and there’s just so much listening time available in a day!) Added benefit, I’ve increased my swimming time ;)
Your husband Jon’s writing this week is beautiful; his words about creativity and authenticity really resonated with me. My husband died three weeks ago from a previously undetected brain tumor and I have spent so much time listening to Jon’s music and being so meditative, thinking of my own dear husband’s authentic, beautiful and unique mind and voice. Thank you.
I'm so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you and wrapping you in so much love ❤️
Thank you. The song Butterfly, especially, has been on repeat for me. My husband was such a beautiful person and also loved taking pictures of butterflies for me since he knew how much I loved their spectacular, fluttering beauty. Please let Jon know that I am waiting (not so) patiently for that new Beethoven Blues album to drop. My husband’s memorial is this coming Saturday and I will be playing Jon’s music throughout the day.
I’m so sorry Jennifer.
Thank you very much.
Jennifer, I’m very sorry about your loss. May the special memories lift you up.
Thank you so much. My memories are bring so many emotions. Such pure love.
There’s a fresh video in which Jon listens to Holiday by Green Day, and composes spontaneously to it. As I was listening, I thought, “He’s our Duke Ellington.” I was thinking about Nutcracker Suite, specifically. Duke Ellington was my mother’s favorite composer and our house was always filled with his music. Jon, you have picked up his baton. He had genius and flair, and so do you, my brother.
Maybe it was because we moved so much or maybe my parents did not think toys were very important, but I always had a lot of books, and very few toys. My parents did not believe in watching television and when we finally got one I was not allowed to watch it much. For many years I did not have friends so I had to use my imagination to invent games. I used to draw a lot and make up stories about the people in my drawings. Usually, sisters, princesses and girls with long flowing hair. When I was too little to write I would dictate my stories to my mother who would dutifully write them on the bottom of the drawings.My mother had a weekly calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spent hours making up stories about the girls in the Renoir paintings. To this day those paintings make me smile. Another inspiration for my imagination was the Sears Roebuck catalogue. I spent hours and hours pouring over its pages inventing stories about the people in the catalogue and choosing outfits for myself. It was the 1970’s so everyone was wearing polyester suits. I do not think I would want to go near any of those clothes now.
When I think back on my childhood-play I marvel at how I was able to fill so much time with only my imagination to occupy me. I feel wistful, but also sad because I remember how lonely I felt at the time. Maybe the stories I invented were the precursor to me developing an interest in writing in recent years. It might have helped me to become a good friend when I finally acquired some friends and to grow into the empathetic clinician that I am today..
Bittersweet memories. ❤️
Imagine that! Almost daily I walk this rural neighborhood. The road through the trees leads me to a bridge over a creek. I usually pause on the bridge, gaze at the flowing waters, and look to see what the setting Sun is saying to me through the reflections within the waters. I am coming to realize that this walk is my pilgrimage to a Sacred place. My eyes suddenly see blue sky and a large yellow leaf on the road. I pick up the leaf, hold it up to the sky, an alter is formed, a prayer is enacted, and there is no separation, no us and them, no separate "I". All becomes Beauty. Herein lies the Divine. A message announcing Life's purpose. To behold, to be held, to embrace, and be embraced. Only Beauty.
Barefooted (still), climbing rocks (when I get the opportunity) I climb stairs and despite being told I am too old keep climbing.. Aha moment.
“Freedom alone, to go further is the purpose in the art world, as in the whole great creation…” and “Nature knows no standstill; hand in hand with it, true art also walks…”. are Beethoven quotations I got from the Beethoven-house in Bonn I visited two weeks ago. It was much more touching for me than I had previously thought to experience his music in connection with things like handwritten letters and notes, his grand piano, but also his huge and therefore desperate collection of ear trumpets and the many portraits of him, always with the expression of suffering. With the combination of art and illness there was no chance not to think of this community here, too. He also wrote “…little was missing, and I ended my life myself - only she, the art, she held me back…”.
I love all of your words and inspirations and am looking very much forward to the new piano-Album! And love and wishes for a golden October Sunday of some kind to everyone here!
“It doesn’t have to be make believe; make it real.” Thank you, Jon. Your piece resonated deeply within me. I love that we can “play” the musical notes heard, yet, unwritten. It makes me believe that we can still continue to add the unwritten notes into the sound track of our daily lives.
Holly - your prompt demands I delve into my past memories before I can respond.
Suleika - thank you for gathering and sharing these wonderful creatives with us and, for us.
Community - thank you for sharing your vulnerabilities, heart aches and joys with us all living within the safe framework of this TIJ playground.